I have a soft spot of Tucker County, my great-grandfather came here from Italy to work in the coal mines in the late 1800’s. He liked it so well he moved his wife and family across the Atlantic Ocean to live here. He built a successful business, DePollo’s on Front Street in Thomas and contributed much to the area. He was a good neighbor to many, ensuring local residents had groceries when times were tough.
His legacy is important to me, that is why I feel the people of Thomas and Davis are getting a raw deal with the Ridgeline Power Plant planned for their doorstep. The WV Department of Environmental Protection is letting the air quality permit sail through even though it is filled with redacted trade secrets. They’ve taken a narrow line on the parameters of the permit when there is little proof that Ridgeline should be considered a synthetic minor source of emissions. In fact, all indicators say otherwise.
Local government officials who might normally be a voice of reason in this situation, were cut out of the equation early on by the WV Power Generation and Consumption Act (HB-2014). Unfortunately, they will be the ones to contend with any problems created by having the plant in proximity to their communities.
If all that hasn’t created enough ill will, Governor Patrick Morrissey recently unveiled his “WV Grows” initiative to create jobs and cut the red tape around permitting so West Virginia can be an easy reach for businesses looking to locate here. That explains a lot and I won’t be surprised if Ridgeline developer Fundamental Data even qualifies for a stipend from the governor’s WV Jobs initiative.
I am concerned because I worked for Allegheny Energy for most of my career, and I know the positives and negatives of having a power plant in a community. Allegheny no longer exists, but I built and operated a number of combustion turbine facilities similar to Ridgeline. Allegheny knew its business well and was a conscientious plant operator. But despite its skills and good intentions, there were still unintended consequences of operating these facilities.
One facility, a 550-MW combined-cycle combustion turbine plant like Ridgeline, was required by regulators to have the stack extended hundreds of feet to make sure the emissions dispersed properly. Another site had a noise vibration issue that rattled doors, windows and foundations in a ten-mile radius. Still another plant trapped emissions during temperature inversions because it was in a low-lying area surrounded by mountains.
Yes there were a lot of construction jobs with these projects, but once built, the largest had less than 50 full-time employees because operations were computerized. The small ones had a roving maintenance crew as they could be started remotely.
Whenever there were problems, Allegheny worked hard to be a good neighbor. The company employed local government liaisons and had community boards that engaged with local and state leaders to find solutions.
There is so little information available about the Ridgeline project and fundamental Data, it’s hard to know if they will be a good neighbor or not. So far, the developer has refused to meet with anyone from the local community. No other officials, save the DEP employees who sat through a five-hour public meeting and the Mayor of Davis, have participated either. Residents are entitled to more. All the stakeholders need to come together to make a project like this work.
The residents of Thomas and Davis deserve to know who they are getting as a neighbor now and not wait until after Fundamental Data has its air permit in hand. By then it is too late. Such close-knit communities should not have a project like this forced upon them without so much as a handshake. State officials should find Ridgeline another location if they want it so badly.
Janice DePollo Lantz
Greensburg, PA
